5 comments

• 

  Steven Hodson

  1 year ago

  I have a couple simple rules.
  
  1. speak the same language - literally
  2. check their blog to see how active it is, whether it's a marketer or not, if its subject matter even comes close to my interest areas
  3. check their Twitter page for the same reasons
  
  and the last one is totally subjective - if after doing all the background check do they still feel "right" .. if so then add away.
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• 

  Chris Miller

  1 year ago

  Mine are easy, you cant follow everyone that follows you. I dropped 30 last week due to noise that didn't fit. If you are on the edge, I give you a shot for a week or so. If you are active with good content and links, I stay with you.
  reply
• 

  Elliott Ng

  1 year ago

  I've noticed that some celebs like @scobleizer friend back everyone who follows them. But others, like @ev friend only a fraction of them. why?
  
  So here's how I decide:
  
  1. tweet frequency - low is ok, but too high requires the content to be topically interesting and not just "i just at lunch" kinda posts.
  
  2. topical interest - by looking at who they are following, and the tweets themselves.
  
  3. website - gives me a clue of what they are generally interested in.
  
  4. civility - a prominent SEO expert I wanted to follow just used too much profanity in his post. So I unfollowed.
  
  I think @jowyang is best practice at providing a really interesting tweetfeed that combines interesting social media news, personal happenings, and other interesting stuff. He is also generous to point out other people's posts and not just flogging his own posts all the time. His frequency doesn't bother me.
  
  My problem is that my interests are diverse: China, search, social media. So I've friended people in each of those areas. So will I lose them all if I tweet randomly in all those directions? :)
  
  @elliottng
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• 

  Austin99

  1 year ago

  I'm still new to twitter, and have just been expanding my circle by clicking through people I'm already following. I can't remember which one I clicked to you from, but I added your blog to my reader and followed you because you're local :). After seeing everyone in either CA or NY, it's nice to see someone in Georgia.
  
  So far I've only removed ones that were just blog post announcements or way too active in an area I wasn't that interested in.
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• 

  Freerangemom

  9 months ago

  I follow based on:
  
  What they have tweeted about over the last few days.... does it interest me to know more.
  Follower/following ratio -- more interested in people being selective about why they follow me (often I can tell who they via, for example)
  They've been tweeting interesting comments to someone I know
  I know them or follow their blog (like you!)
  
  Don't follow automatically if:
  they are only promoting a product
  they have no personal information available -- a company news bot for example
  reply